twillight
First time out of the vault
With jdmazz soon finishing his go, I considered too a similar go, but ended up with more theory than result.
On the other hand this isn't a question, but a discussion hopefully. Until that, here is my starter, all the experience I could gather on the Insane Mode:
Easy is barely distinguishable from Normal for me, maybe even less (total lack) of chance to die. I give the company that the feeling of Normal is very much like F1-2's fights, despite 1.27 brought everything to CTB instead of TB. Pertty much any character is viable, you can even solo the whole thing with pretty much any build (throwing is secondary attack type, and melee simply sucks of course).
Come to think of it, I'd take a look on a pure-smallguns team all the way. (One character can be sustainable at leastthrough the whole game using electric shotung ammo, Acid Sprayer, M79 against robots. The midgame seems lacking sufficient small guns, unless there area lot of ammo similarto the "purple shotgun shells".)
Hard is a whole new animal. It is "hard" in the sense soloing is not recommended at all, you must pay attention, use your knowledge and equipment, make your builds more sophisticated. Big Guns suddenly become unavoidable at a point (if you want good results on subquestsat least), and you start to feel the slogan "be prepared, get tactical".
Also seems to me aside Winded crippled conditions don't go away anymore justby spending time on the worldmap
And then comes Insane Difficulty. Yayy. That hurt.
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My playstyle is outranging the enemy, not getting hurt if possible, and consuming as little drugs as possible.
I've learnt the hard way this doesn't work on Insane.
You know bro, I came out with a 14 PE ghoul. Friggin planned everything. I had the perfect team in my mind. I thought I had everything.
The only thing I did not have was the knowledge the design either cheats on a large scale, or I just expected too much from PE, and that couple of skillpoint (6 to be precise) really mean that much at that point, but Farsight outschooled me on an important scale. Crap. But even she is so pathetic, that with her 31-33% hit chances she runs out of ammo before finishing the #3 raider, and that's mostly Game Over as that guy is a cheater: onehits ca. everything to the maximum range of his pistol. Definitely not fair.
And that guy just LOVES running out to raider #2 if the fight is elongated over a couple of shots, which is darn dangerous, given you have to make Farsight stand up, run back, but not that much so Raider #3 stops somewhere... I hate that guy. Because of him you must make #2 lay down by shooting it with Farsight laying, and run in with Stitch and The Warrior. So you'll get hurt.
This getting hurt thing is even more painful at the hostage-tent, where the melee guy will charge your team. That bat hurts. That was the point I realised: ghouls have a very hard time starting Complete Insane. Their lack of ability to wear the basic armor kills them. But my plan was real perfect, darn it! Seems it wasn't.
For the same reason and more Deatchlaws should not go either. Why? a) they can't wear armor, not even brahmin b) they can't do anything but unarmed combat c) their killing speed is still lacking because the hit-chance for unarmed is ca. 70%, and their damage-output - which is the highest compared to other races - on Insane is lacking killing speed. That hurts.
Also given what we know of Insane in general they pretty much can't have any use in Kansas City. Ok, maybe it could protect the north gate, but that somehow feels low. And I'm not even sure about that one.
They also gain perks sluggishly, while any unarmed character is in demand of perks.
The only build i can come up with would be Heavy Handed + Kamikaze (so it'd have killing speed during Brahmin Wood), and for perks Hide of Scars (8 -> 10), Toughness (12), Toughness?, (that gives 50% resistance, 100% with 1 dose of psycho, which is recommended to survive big guns fire, but maybe you'll have to settle 80-90% and voodoo at the place of action), Brutish Hulk (4 -> 8), bonus HtH attack? bonus HtH damage?, Slayer (24).
So it's not attractive, even problematic. Even during the stat-distribution you'll probably settle with 2-3 IN (not impossible with a character doing nothing else but unarmed fight), and won'tbe able to use the incrised stat maximums.
Let's take a look at Supermutants:
they start with equal resistance of basic BoS armor, but they're slow at walking. Also until St. Louise (unless you do a special encounter of course) it won't have a weapon aside its fists. Ok, there's Power Fist and whatnot, and you can use Vat Skin for better survival. The obvious advantage would be gaining a sure big gunner for your party, which is pretty hard to come by until too late. The negative is its problematic running speed, and the lack of weapon. I don't know how comfortable you are with lvl 2-3 characters messing with Browning-wielding supermutants in random encounters. Even if you have the jeep...
Now let's talk about the team. On Insane you WILL need a team. Even on Hard you'd required at least a team of 4 for situations like deathclaws and crap in Quincy, ya know. On Hard you can pull some dead weight (1-2 characters), but with that escalation I'd bet Insane is even more unforgiving. So Jax goes out of the picture.
Why mention Jax? Because an optimal team, I mean optimal in capability of decimation, would be made of 4 snipers (energy weapons when it comes to that, all laser rifles primaly) and 2 big gunners. 2 BG won't kill each other by friendly fire, but can compensate if one misses a shot. The two can also destroy a Behemoth even in record time.
Unfortunately Supermutant recruits come way too late. Their 2 AP bursts can't help you in Kansas City where not only firepower is needed, but CONSTANT firepower. That's what 2 AP bursts give you: an entire army of enemy annihilated by one character. It's not more damage, but damage to more enemy.
So you want recruits and want them NOW, to train them properly until Kansas City at the very least. And who you have access too? Not many.
You have of course:
- Farsight: She's a sniper type. Her 4 LK on Insane shows though: she constantly will be hit from friend and foe, so she seriously shall be trained to stay far from the front line with a sniper rifle.
By the way: you had enough of Too Many Random Encounters? Keep around Farsight, rise HER outdoorsman skill, and voila, almost no random encounters! Talk about Weird Coding...
- Stitch: the guy is blind, on Insane you want to get rid of him probably.
Don't forget:
- PipBoy: he comes early, he's a sure catch, has good skill level, good stats to be a big gunner (6 PE is not sniper quality), is a small target, has a powerful weapon etc.
And the BoS offer:
- Brian: 5 PE is not ideal even for a Big Gunner. And drugging up your team takes time. Maybe try Team Combat Mode for that in Kansas City? Hit enter, drug up, release turn based mode?
- Jo: she sux. Low PE, low AG, bad skills. She was a whole other person before the patch.
- Jax: he's actually attractive, the problem is, he'll be dead weight for atl least 1 mision (30% small guns at the start). And with his 5 IN has to evolve 2 combat stat ASAP (SmallGuns, then BigGuns), so he won't be able to help your team on other fields.
- Robin: look, I'm not sure what's your style, but I don't like to send melee against a group of AK 47. Because you will if you have melee-only team. Tag! only comes at lvl 12, so he's stuck with that until then.
Well, it is certainly possible at a merrit as you can see it at jdmazz (not in Kansas though), but I'm way too not into that situation.
He also only have 5 ST predestining him more to sniper role, and has the problematic NightPerson trait too.
- Torn: another melee character. She has ok stats, but her 4 IN seriously gives a limitation. Also has 4 LK like Farsight, but doesn't have the precoded super-sight.
- Trevor: with his 4 IN and 6 PE he'd have to handle 3 combat skills (throwing, small guns, big guns after tagging), and that's... Inconvenient for me.
These come after Rock Falls with 1-2 CH (maybe 3 too), after Freeport if you have CH 4-5 (Ice only if you have 5 CH), or right after Brahmin Wood too if 6+ CH:
- Kevin: only 5 PE, his starting SG is semi-low (only 65%, while you'd need 90%+ right there). Not entirely useless though, but for Insane I want to be strong, and I want it now.
- Mandy: Sniper type. Could hold a Big Gun, but why waste her talent. Has very high skill rate, so she'll be able to afford any skill you want to give her, starting with Doctor if you did not tag it to yourself (or you just tagged it for the extra doctor's bag). Sure, if you get rid of Stitch for her you'll likely not have anyone with doctor's skill for 1 mission, but that's probably sustainable.
- Rage: has good stats, likely a sniper, especially with his 5 ST only, unless you Mutate him to Gifted or give Gain Strength. Both viable options though. He also has steal tagged, and with 60% steal (sneaking, from behind) you can get 3 Pancor Jackhammer from the Merchant encounter. Good against Quincy's deathclaws.
- Rebecca: with the 2 lockpick trick she isn't that dandy. 5 ST, 4 EN -> sniper type.
- Ice: she can do her stuff I give you that. But her 7 PE, the lack of support skill aside outdoorsman which is redundant if you have Farsight (and you probably won't have a better sniper for a long time, so you likely will hold onto her. Or not) don't make her much attractive to me, although I confess I got used to a certain asset and I'm not that good with major changes, so considering the roles + support skills teamup can prove me otherwise here.
Worth to mention with 6 CHA you'll get access after Rock Falls 3 more recruit instead of after Macomb + Preoria:
- Keith
- Stoma
- Stumpy
But I don't think neither is the highlight of life.
If you plan using anyone after this point, you get the same pool until it counts. After Mardin you'll have acces to (if sidequests are done for ghouls and deathclaws): Creeper, Dillon, Harold, Martin, Shaav,Shriek, Hurt, Krldraav, Malice, Mother, Pain, Alice, Boomer, Ed, Max. They come somewhat late, so you'll have short time trying to fix them. Likely you're better off with the characters from before. They all have serious trouble, like extremly low LK or IN, or otherwise, like being Glowing One (and extremly low AG), or simply being slightly underlevelled, or lacking any combat skills for example (This is Ed. Ed is dead.).
So the potential Big Gunners are lacking big time. Given that you also need competent and numerous snipers, the pool is even further limited. This'll make it likely your protagonist will have to fill the role.
Also means your protagonist better have at least 4 CH. 4 CH because up 'till before Freeport you'll only find 3 dose of Mentat (2 through special encounter. No idea if any random encounter can carry doses of Mentats), and one will be used up by Farsight (the one you find in Brahmin Wood). That gives 6 CH, and all the good people right away. If you can.
Yes, unlike for choosing perks you don't need hard points to get rank. I mean recruit pool. Well, it1s a complicated issue. Accept it that this works while probably shouldn't.
This all means you should figure out a viable human character? Not entirely.
While it'll lack the Perfect Team, definetly would have power of survival if you start with a robot. Robots are not species in the reguilar terml, so I did not lie when telling that about deathclaws' damage, technically (rolls speech check).
If you take the robotic approach try to get the brahmin armor. And given how problematic it can turn to be don't go kamikaze. Also advicing against One Hander because you can't mutate it away. But its native traits are very attractive, and their downside usually worth it.
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Finaly the human character. As you're "supposed to", because the studio had no sanity to give the option to the player to choose race for the campaign mode. Ye, it makes SOMe sense story-wise, but c'mon!
I did not do it, this is purely theory, but you'd look atleast somewhat like this:
skills: unarmed, small guns, +1: sneak is not absolutly needed. Will need Big Guns, but I'm not sure if that's sufficient starting skill or should later be tagged instead.
traits: gifted, onehander which gets later mutated away to fast shot
SPECIAL: ST: 6-7-9, PE: 7?, EN: 7+, CH: 4, IN: 6+, AG: 8-9 (depends if you'll have a Leader in the team), LK: 5-6
With 6, 7, 7, 4, 6, 8, 6 you spend 44 points, leaving 3 more. Considering the problems with the first mission I'd spend those points either into ST (more unarmed damage, no need of perk to handle Browning / Bracing instead of Weapon Handling to use Browning) or into EN (can suffer a bigger hit preventing dying - good to know tagging Unarmed givesa Buffout, which you should swallow right away).
Here's also my ghoul who passed (I'm sexy! - Okj, face it, ghouls suck. Their only good stat is PE, but making that work is not easy, ghoul perks suck, ghoul traits suck, and they can't wear basic armor, so humans are 99% better/more simple like in this case too):
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How to solve Mission #1 (Brahmin Wood):
Make a character with at least 7 EN (which also makes Preoria that much easier 'cause add a Buffout and an environmental armor and you'r immun to poison. Ghouls require 9 EN for Brahmin Wood, and with that will haveno issue with poison/radioactivity) , Unarmed tagged, possibly onehanded. It does not/under the patch no longer effects onehanded and twohanded weapons, instead gives 10% to small guns and unarmed (also throwing). Yes, it cripples big guns. That can be fixed later.
Also pick Gifted, and tag Small Guns (unless you plan something funny). The 3rd tag is optional. I suggest Repair, if you're against it then Doctory, maybe Big Guns (or Energy Weapons).
6-9 ST to have melee damage and selection of weaponry. Have 7+ PE for ranged weapons later. EN 7+ for survival (it really makes you avoid 1HKO. Experiment for your own risk trying to lower this number, I suspect a Weird Coding related to this. 100% fact anything less than 5 will make you killed). CH 4 for team (if you don't care, get a robot instead). IN 6+ because of skillpoints and BRoF. AG 8 if I may (9 would be even better if you'll have a Leader, but probably that point is better spent elsewhere). LK 5-6 to not get negatives, possibly for Bonus Ranged Damage.
My character has 9/7/7/4/6/8/6. Yes, I did it.
As soon as the mission starts eat the Buffout you got for tagging Unarmed. Keep your character unarmed unless I say so. Actually, give that Buffout to Farsight instead.
Encounter #1 (the boy and his dog): the dog is no threat, if notices you will charge your team. Make Stitch with shotgun crouch behind the wall, and it'll die by one shot. To ensure this you might stand there with the rest (MP5 on you and Beretta on tripple shot on Farsight - or simply MP5 on Farsight).
The human patrol when noticing you will come and stand close to the wall, possibly charging your team. Wait until this is revealed. If he comes - kill him. If stops charge where he is (he always stands the same spot) point blank range. Let's hope you don'tkill yourself with the shotgun.
Encounter #2 (associates): the nearer standby should be finished off ASAP else the other comes and shoots with deadly precision and it is just annoying, and the situation is a waste of currently rare ammo. So instead charge Raider#2 with Stitch and you as soon as he lays down when Farsight shoots a bullet on hiim/her. Actually just make 1 shot by Farsight, make her run behind the fence to the tohers, switch her to MP5, and run in point blank with everyone.
After finished move Farsight along the chasm to see where Raider#3 patrols. When he's between the sandbags uncovered lay down. That should provide enough % to autoattack and he can' disappear behind the sandbags, which fastens the process (this mission will take a looong time on Insane). If he shoots back crawl back a little. That's your ammo he's wastin'.
Encounter #4 (the coward): this one is alone, but likes to hide in its room. Put you two best with shotgun + MP5 (or unarmed) next to the entrance, and make your 3rd member get noticed. The guy will come near the entrance. Move your 3rd to the rest. When the raider gets bored charge in and hope again you don't kill yourself with the shotgun.
Encounter #5 (cockroaches): the shotgunner outside the fence makes your life hardest.
But give Farsight the MP%, and send her laying at the left side of the pots, so she just sees the guy insde and starts bursting. He'll run out of the gate - maybe releasing some shots just the first time - and keep running in and outmaking himself killed. The only danger is if the dog runs in during his first leave, sobe prepared to send in the rest of the party (magnum on Stitch).
When going out of this building there'll be a dog patrol. Wait it to appear, it'll notice you and charge you. Make a falanx from your troop and it'll die before first bite.
Move Stitch and you back to the building, to the fence near the door you came in - the shotgunner will probably charge to this place giving you free shots. Make Farsight crawl around nearer to the little shed outside and shoot from there with the 23% she gets layed down. That's the best you can have. For a ton of ammo shotgunner will either die not doing a thing (this never happens, we only hope) or run to its death. At the point he really turns coward and starts running he's a spinning duck and means no harm (99%). He'll actually run into the small room of #4, so just plant there Stitch (with MP5) and yourself.
Inside the shed is a dose of Voodoo, store it (unless you're sure of yourself).
Encounter #6 (kennel): give Farsight the freshly looted Silverhawk with double barrel. Stealth your whole party, agressivity to defensive. Position her and you next to the sleeping human make Stitch stand between the dogs and the human (have him either shotgun or MP5). Hit agressive (asap if the human awakens).
Encounter #7 (hostage situation): crouch Stitch and yourself (this time with some Small Guns. Maybe standing would be better as when he gets point blank HtH is better approach) in front of the tent (you can't sneak because of the brahmins). Run in with Farsight, she has a chance to shoot once. Or position her until she sees from outside one of them and can hit him with hunting rifle. Run back to your team, ONE of the raiders will charge. Let's hope he doesn't kill anyone, but dies (I hate this part).
Next send yourself to the other entrance running to the raider who walked back to its place. Charge in the other two too. Everyone should have single shot setting, you unarmed.
When finished lay to the walls at the side which leads further. Wait until you sense the siluette of the patrol there.
Encounter #8 (seek&destroy): charge the patrol, don't let it run to any distance. Use the .45 pistol you got from Encounter #2, the MP5, yourself unarmed. Position that she'll run away from the nearby tent.
Inside the tent near the entrance is a sneaker. He'll likely hurt you, but not kill you. Run point blank its place and hope the best. You'll find a dose of Mentat on the shelves - make Farsight eat them.
Send Farsight out and outranging shoot laying the guy inside his bunker. He likes to crouch and stand behind the pole of it, so if you don't see him for a couple of seconds walk around very far with another character to check if he's just standing behind the pole.
Encounter #9 (nazi bunker): go along Farsight (who has Silverhawk, double barrel) and you or Stitch (same weapon) sneaking on the far side of the fence of the playground. Walk up to the raider and kill it switching agresisve (really need no point in sneak to make this). Before doing this give Farsight the Voodoo, keep in mind you did, and start hurry with the rest of the mission. Go back.
Make Farsight lay down along the fence outside when the patrol gets out of the cover of the wrecked car (use the car yourself as cover too) and shoot down the scropio-patrol. If the hunting rifle guy runs out of the bunker that's Game Over for me, can't help you (ca. 10% chance).
Send yourself unarmed around the little bunker. Or send Farsight and Stitch, silverhawk on Farsight, MP5 on Stitch. Get patched up, and murder the guy on the left who has a hunting rifle. Run out asap if you get hurt, patch up, rinse and repeat. The other guy has plenty of resistances/HP, so expect with that he takes forever to die (run out when you run out of AP, seriously). Pick up and equip the Punch Dagger for yourself.
Encounter #10 (rubbled site): climb the sniper nest and kill the guy there (try sneaking, but he usually allows) either by you (if you have damage resistance) or by Farsight (go point blank when up there).
From there you should be able to spot a patrol (and the local guy with the dog if he decides to not sit tight), and there's a guy hiding behind the nearby wall and might try to charge ther nest (he'll be a sitting duck that way, but still). Deal with them by Farsight sniping from up here.
There is a sneaker you-know-where (if not look up a Let's Play video) who might or might not come out of its hiding (sometimes I'm even unable to find him at all, and come back from the HQ to deal with him). Sorround his place and mob him when appears.
There's another raider (already mentioned) in the area with a dog (the dog never leaves the corner to look around).
Encounter #11 (danger zone): before leaving the rubbled place is another sneaker you-know-where so stand him around.
Just outside the wall in front of the big building is a 2-men patrol, one has a shotgun and likes to run dangerously mid-distance. If you can beat him, you're halfway there. Might want to feed Farsight the Voodoo here. Might want to throw the incindenary grenades/molotovcocktails on the shotgunner by Farsight (she has 44% throwing, you might dobetter if you tagged the skill). The other (with smething single-shot) isn't deadly, just dangerous (and likes to run around, so mostly just annoying).
Then there's still outside a guy crouching at a corner of the building with a hunting rifle. Run to him from behind (can't sneak because of cows) while Farsight shoots him from the front. Hope the best. He isn't supposed to be deadly with 6-7 EN. Anotherlegitim approachis to send Farsight and Stitch point blank with double barrel silverhawk,but smetimes the guy notice your party and can hurt frighteningly.
Encounter #12 (boss): this if nothing else is why you fed the Voodoo to Farsight, she'll do the job here with the remaining ammo of shotgun, and hunting rifle.
Step out double barrel Silverhawk, and immediatelly step back. You'll if all goes well shoot once (maybe killing the crouching guy at the entrance, maybe not), step to cover, AND the boss-speech will be done for (very annoying, 'cause moves the screen, making you hard to get into safety, possibly lethal if you accidently click inside the curtain instead of outside). Sneaking helps (Farsight has a good portion in that).
If the guy lives AND runs away get to the roof, otherwise rins&repeat and only get to the roof when he's dead. It is also likely that you'll see another raider come close. If you think close enough, duble barrel it too and hope it's not you who dies (they are many).
If you're VERY lucky you might see the sniper girl who's most dangerous of all from the roof and be able to snipe her. Or Horus the boss. If not, get down and walk along the gate-cover looking for a bug which let's you see the enemy on the other side (again likely the sniper girl, possibly other/s). Thin them out this way,and don't forget to heal, heal,heal asap if you get hit! If there's no remaining option step out cautiously, remaining as far from the enemy as possible and do your stuff. If get hurt even slightly, step behind the curtain and get healed! Seriously!
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Intermission:
- I don't like Stitch for this, so add him Here&Now, spend all points on Barter. Aside the sepcial encounters also bought 200 shotgunshells from the BoS.
- get to Brahmin Poker encounter
- get to Hermit, buy outdoorsman book, metal armor, mentat
- get to Farmer, buy outdoorsman and small guns book.
- get to Gas Station, buy Elixir of Life
- get to Trader. Buy enviromental armor and mentat
- get to Merchant. Buy pilot book, traps book, and optionally the FNFal (that's a very strong weapon at this point)
- get to PipBoy and have him (worth it even just for the FNFal)
- brahmin armor encounter: if you have/plan to have ghoul/supermutant. The thing is even better than mark II ghoul armor.
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Freeport:
Important is that the camp does NOT wake up. Sneak around with a 2-3 person strike team murdering everyone in their sleep.
Also the warning about the bridge is very serious this time. From the Informator start to clean it up slowly, otherwise you can easily be overwhelmed.
During the mission burst mode wins. AK47s for everyone.
Lastly don't forget that conflict between karma and rank got dropped, so free Ripley.
Ah, the boss also got damage. On any other diff he was a total joke.
You can drag up to 2 extra with you during this mission.
After the mission you can get (bought/stolen) a small guns mag from Shauri.
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Rock Falls:
You barely have range-advantage with hunting rifle. Use that.
The main threat is AK47 enemies. The AI is also clever, but the buggers don't shame sneaking. So meta-knowledge comes in handy.
Some enemies are better left out, like the 2 guy in the pit on the left. If youwant to kill those know that they are sneaking, and have AK47. Those things under Insane are potentially lethal. Better wear that enviromental armor with your tank.
Supllies are also thin. For a period it looks like you'll run out of 7.62 ammo tostart with. Healing supply is also thin, I'm at the very end of First Aid Kits and stimpacks every time. Seems stealing will be a must.
Enter the complex through the main gate. It opens by touching.
Leave Daisy for the last of the outer parts. There's a voodoo during the mission - consume it. Have an FNFal. Wear Enviromental Armor. Play step in-step out. Heal in between.
The final building has engine-holes - abuse that bug. The scorpio-henchmen like to cripple you with every shot, and the boss has AK47. The door at the bottom can be picked (Rebecca w/o spending any skillpoint could do it with 7 tries). Going in the normal way is VERY problematic, the AK47s up the galleyway mustbe killed to be able to kill the AK47s on the first floor's terrace, but getting up and not dying before they do is almost a miracle itself. Even with EN 7, Enviromental Armor, and a Voodoo consumed, using an FNFal.
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Macomb:
Heavy use of the vehicle is advised. Burst everyone to death.
Gate#3 is very dangerous, and inside you can't have the car for extra protection. AJackhammer if you have comes VERY handy. Also drugs if you wish. Bunker Beta immediately offers you fatchance of gambling for tons of drugs and repair kits.
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Preoria:
Poison is sick, but if your EN is high enough AND wear Environmental Armor you're safe at least form that.
Overdose the turrets as regular.
Do not let the critters melee you, they cause crippling criticals too easily.
But as youhave large space to pull back, if it is something thatdoes not shoot acid on you, you can use all kinds of otherwise unused weaponry to spare real ammo.
After this mission the doctor's assistant is no longer available for gambling, so if you want his stuff get it before doing this mission.
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Quincy:
This place is a mess
Actually far less problematic when you know whatyou're doing, justhugh, thus frustrating if &@{ hits the fan.
#0 Preparation
Get to the merchant encounter and steal yourself all 4 pancor jackhammer from there. Also get ammo to them. (Travel there, steal 1-2 things, back to base, save, repeat - that's how though guys do it. 70% steal should work.)
You don't need special oneshot stuff. The only special thing that can work is a .44 magnum which eats 1 less AP per shot, with JHP buletts. Otherwise AK47s and FNFals are perfectly fine solution.
Buy a Power Fist in the BoS. 10-20 ammo shuld be enough for it, you only will use it once.
Pack 3 psycho for you assault team who'll free Eliot.
Buy form the BoS the 80 green shotgun shells they offer. It'll come in handy. At 1 occasion only they incrise your chances.
#1: Saving Hillary
To do this best if you send someone who can sneak. Sneak in through the ladder with a jackhammer. Stand before the bullhorn blocking the way (stand on the side closer to him if you're not sure, so he'll make a longer route, and that's enough). Hit agressive - done. Disable the big siren.
For completion (and to remove possible problems - in this mission enemy likes to hive in) get out, stand at the windows aiming the sleeping 2 baby. Start shooting with all 4 jackhammer, and even the 3rd will come. Get away, change to hunting rifles, get to the front going around the playground. Get just close enough (some of your troop should be able to afford 120-125% smallguns, the rest 100%), lay down, kill the beastmen outside and inside.
This is a 100% solution.
#2: Powerplant
You'll need 2 person, one in environmental armor, the other metal armor. Both aquired from special encounters a long time ago. Both should eata psycho. Actually make a 3rd member eat one too in case you get knocked out. All have pancors.
When you see the patrol arriving send environmental to her, the other to the bottom sandbags. Do not afraid if you see things blowing up, that doesn't matter. I'm not even sure where the smoke comes from. Move the personal as needed. Hotkeys rule this subqest.
Don't forget to disarm the remote traps for 200 more subquest exp.
This is actually a 99% solution.
#3 Ghoul Town
I prefer this, because things can get haywire here easily. First switch to hunting rifle, and when you see one or both the patrol close enough run to shooting range and finish them off. Things should settle now.
Make a wall of iron now: all your team except 1 crouching in one line, facing the deathclaw standing not too far. Switch to the strongest bursting weapon you have. Send in your standing person (not one with jackhammer, and make it be a good sniper). Send the soldier close enough to release a bulett, then ASAP GET BACK. Best is if you start running back from the side of the road nerer to the houses (the side of the deathclaw), and come back nearer to the fence. This way you avoid being bursted to death by pancor jackhammer, and lead the deathclaw to the most lethal place: in the middle of the road.
Now keep your line but stand up. The three psychoed pancor person should have single shot stuff on them (FNFal, .44 magnum, AK47 etc.). Also shall ALL pancor be filled with green ammo for this. The ones not with autoshotgun shall have hunting rifles. Activate "formation" on in the options menu. Run to the road betwwen the Ghoul Town and the beastmen farm. When most stuff are dead (especially the grown deathclaw) switch weapon on your 3 psycho assault team, and send them to the barn ASAP. They must rescue Eliot from getting shot in the head. If everything goes as intended you won't burst yourself to death, neither will you have any problem with the deathclaws as the AI is not clever enough to get around the fence.
This is the best chance as far as I know, I give it 70-80% success rate.
#4 Major's Daughter
Once I got a "you lost, nyeh nyeh nyeh" message even though I wasn't even near the place, so that can happen.
If that doesn't ruin your career switch to hunting rifles and start killing things on the side of the powerplant. Then clear the roof. Then go downand kill the guard in the front, then the dogs and their master (the dogs have surprising amount of HP, use burst mode AK47/FNFal with your party).
Next make a line and send in a sniper like with the firstdeathclaw. Run out, and the patrol inside dies.
Get in the lobby, make a line with jackhammers. There's no place for a 5th member, so stand 2 person behind them with hunting rifles. Hit agressive. When the deathclaw is dead switch weapons on the shotgunners to kill the beastman faster.
Have 2 jackhammer sneak in to the sleepers and fnish them off.
Success rate: if that unknown factor does not appear, 100%.
#5 Prison
Get through the tunnel. I used mr. Environmental to finish the two in the tunnel - they don't seem to be anything special. Send 1 jackhammer sneaking on the ladder in defensive. Wait until the beastman inside goes away. Break the bullhorn, switch to agressive. When the patrol is dead switch defensive, keep sneaking, send up the party. The party should already have single shot stuff set on them. The jackhammer who just now killed the patrol should keep his weapon. If you have a character capable of unarmed (this is insane mode, your protagonist should be) apply the power fist you brought. Send everyone up the stairs. Send everyone to the corner of the sandbags. Send jackhammer to the right side to the two beastman behind the sandbag. Send your power fist right to the boss. Watch everyone's HP to pull anyone who gets hurt to cover.
This is the best you can do. Factoring all the risks expect ca. 70% success rate.
This is the final official mission, there are 3 more with minor or no consequence.
#6 Brothel of Physical Lust
The idea is to run (or if every member is capable sneak) to the side at the edge of the building. The AI doesn't seem to be overly agressive until you enter.
Have everyone single shot stuff.
Send the majority just in the room, around the crouching guy at the door. Send 1 person to the windows where is a prostitute. Who'll likely die anyway to be honest.
If you manage to have at worst 2 loss of hostages you get top exp (400 exp). The girls only need to live until the beastmen INSIDE die.
If you can't do the quota, youstill get quest exp (200 exp).
If you hit any of the girls, you get no exp for your troubles.
This is highly dependent from random, perfect score maybe possible 30-40% of times. But hitting a girl maybe happens only 10%, so it has a good chance you get recognised anyway.
#7 Even atheists go to church sometimes - although not for praying
Ye, circle all the way back around the prison, and go for the church. It has 2 deathclaws in it. Be fast, and they wil try tpo pass through the wall instead of going through the door. Finish them off with jackhammers (enemy with low HP tends to flee, and that doesn't sound good).
NOTE: if youdon't want to mess with the claws but need the armor inside, leave the mission, then come back. The enemy will be gone.
#8 Two hiding deathclaw and a beastman
I'd never sacrifice a perfect mission for only a handful of exp. If I'd need exp, huntin in random encounters sound 10000% safer. So I always pass this one.
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Mardin:
With every playthrough I hate Mardin more. The wasps are bloody tiny, even on Hard everything starts to cripple you with every hit, poison appears again, but on Insane this mission - at least the surface - becomes bloody ridiculous! The lack of doctor's bag not helps the situation either (the developers seem to be shamed by this, provided a new doctor - which means refill of medic stuff - back in the base. Hope you got everything from the original doctor).
One of the reason why this is so hard, because everyone from all around will charge towards you as soon as you attack someone. And some enemy are just bloody cheaters. For f* sake, one beastman had better vision than bloody Billy Bob!
Btw, why bud Billy does not gain a perk at lvl 9? Darn it! And darn Farsight for she so easily becomes irradiated! And darn the developers making every darn ghoul darn glowing from radiation, and darnn not providing radX and rad away, and darn environmental armor! (Should I check the shop more?)
And darn them that I practically had to solo the whole underground part with a combat shotgun!
Good news are scarce, but exist: wasps are NOT by techncalflying, thus theycan"step" on mines. They're also unable to pass the graveyard fence - that's rly helpful.
And the deathclaws are a help. Btw, to finish of Darn, best use Power Fist.
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Springfield
Since once the boss ran in and murderd the mayor no matterthe difficulty I jump in environmental armor, grab a Pancor and an FNFal, tons of ammo, get high on a psycho and a voodoo, and play terminator.
For the final 2 buildings get hold to some shotgun slugs because they can deal armornegating criticals so killing them fast is a must.
And for the tall building switch defensive, crawl to see the gas and blow those up first.
NOTE: do NOT go in and talk with the major until you looted the bodies!
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St. Louise:
On Insane the missionbriefing makes absolute sense. Doing anything not sticking to the shortest route will probably kill you. At least it like to the vehicle. Even some saw-muties can shred it, and then it's game over.
I found the route on the picture the least risky. You need a sniper. Use the fact the AI is dumb and caneasily blow itself up on the minefield.Use range to your advantage. Use chasms and the passfinding routine's simplicity to your advantage. Fear the rocketeers. Remember the browning. Riding in to the first sandbag is unavoidable (but it is highly unlikely they'd shred the APC).
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Jefferson
Thisplace is a nightmare on Insane. The skin of the muties is darn thick,and the distance betwee you dead and not is the drugs you took, and the critical they just might get which'd ignore your armor!
So, Insane has this problem that it's no longer about Damage Per Second, but Damage Per Shot. I made a second group which knows this and I think I'll forever abandone my human-lead group for the sake of the ghoul-one.
Ghouls have advantage of incrised racial maximum luck, which can help to cause massive amounts of criticals, especially with the More Criticals perk. Take 2, and Weapon Handling, not 3 like stupid forgetful me. At least this gave me enough damage to pass Jefferson, and while not ideal, will probably be managable. I do have an archive save after St Louise before I picked perks, but why bother. Ye, would be comfortable to wield me too a Browning, but I think I can manage.
Especially that seems Fear the Reaper is bugged. If the Scythe is now swinged, it's no problem. If the Scythe is swinged and hits, it's no problem. The problem seems to occur because the damage the character receives counts as an attack, so armor (AC) can prevent it. It seems to be the mechanic which causes crash, because avoidning that damage results in Unexpected Error.
Well, everything will depend on defending Kansas City.
Jax of course will get drugs (Mutie, 2*Psycho), and my Lola will use rocket launcher (hardly any ammo, but fortunately no browning on that map) and SAW. I plan on making a falanx of pancor jackhammers, but we'll see.
On the other hand this isn't a question, but a discussion hopefully. Until that, here is my starter, all the experience I could gather on the Insane Mode:
Easy is barely distinguishable from Normal for me, maybe even less (total lack) of chance to die. I give the company that the feeling of Normal is very much like F1-2's fights, despite 1.27 brought everything to CTB instead of TB. Pertty much any character is viable, you can even solo the whole thing with pretty much any build (throwing is secondary attack type, and melee simply sucks of course).
Come to think of it, I'd take a look on a pure-smallguns team all the way. (One character can be sustainable at leastthrough the whole game using electric shotung ammo, Acid Sprayer, M79 against robots. The midgame seems lacking sufficient small guns, unless there area lot of ammo similarto the "purple shotgun shells".)
Hard is a whole new animal. It is "hard" in the sense soloing is not recommended at all, you must pay attention, use your knowledge and equipment, make your builds more sophisticated. Big Guns suddenly become unavoidable at a point (if you want good results on subquestsat least), and you start to feel the slogan "be prepared, get tactical".
Also seems to me aside Winded crippled conditions don't go away anymore justby spending time on the worldmap
And then comes Insane Difficulty. Yayy. That hurt.
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My playstyle is outranging the enemy, not getting hurt if possible, and consuming as little drugs as possible.
I've learnt the hard way this doesn't work on Insane.
You know bro, I came out with a 14 PE ghoul. Friggin planned everything. I had the perfect team in my mind. I thought I had everything.
The only thing I did not have was the knowledge the design either cheats on a large scale, or I just expected too much from PE, and that couple of skillpoint (6 to be precise) really mean that much at that point, but Farsight outschooled me on an important scale. Crap. But even she is so pathetic, that with her 31-33% hit chances she runs out of ammo before finishing the #3 raider, and that's mostly Game Over as that guy is a cheater: onehits ca. everything to the maximum range of his pistol. Definitely not fair.
And that guy just LOVES running out to raider #2 if the fight is elongated over a couple of shots, which is darn dangerous, given you have to make Farsight stand up, run back, but not that much so Raider #3 stops somewhere... I hate that guy. Because of him you must make #2 lay down by shooting it with Farsight laying, and run in with Stitch and The Warrior. So you'll get hurt.
This getting hurt thing is even more painful at the hostage-tent, where the melee guy will charge your team. That bat hurts. That was the point I realised: ghouls have a very hard time starting Complete Insane. Their lack of ability to wear the basic armor kills them. But my plan was real perfect, darn it! Seems it wasn't.
For the same reason and more Deatchlaws should not go either. Why? a) they can't wear armor, not even brahmin b) they can't do anything but unarmed combat c) their killing speed is still lacking because the hit-chance for unarmed is ca. 70%, and their damage-output - which is the highest compared to other races - on Insane is lacking killing speed. That hurts.
Also given what we know of Insane in general they pretty much can't have any use in Kansas City. Ok, maybe it could protect the north gate, but that somehow feels low. And I'm not even sure about that one.
They also gain perks sluggishly, while any unarmed character is in demand of perks.
The only build i can come up with would be Heavy Handed + Kamikaze (so it'd have killing speed during Brahmin Wood), and for perks Hide of Scars (8 -> 10), Toughness (12), Toughness?, (that gives 50% resistance, 100% with 1 dose of psycho, which is recommended to survive big guns fire, but maybe you'll have to settle 80-90% and voodoo at the place of action), Brutish Hulk (4 -> 8), bonus HtH attack? bonus HtH damage?, Slayer (24).
So it's not attractive, even problematic. Even during the stat-distribution you'll probably settle with 2-3 IN (not impossible with a character doing nothing else but unarmed fight), and won'tbe able to use the incrised stat maximums.
Let's take a look at Supermutants:
they start with equal resistance of basic BoS armor, but they're slow at walking. Also until St. Louise (unless you do a special encounter of course) it won't have a weapon aside its fists. Ok, there's Power Fist and whatnot, and you can use Vat Skin for better survival. The obvious advantage would be gaining a sure big gunner for your party, which is pretty hard to come by until too late. The negative is its problematic running speed, and the lack of weapon. I don't know how comfortable you are with lvl 2-3 characters messing with Browning-wielding supermutants in random encounters. Even if you have the jeep...
Now let's talk about the team. On Insane you WILL need a team. Even on Hard you'd required at least a team of 4 for situations like deathclaws and crap in Quincy, ya know. On Hard you can pull some dead weight (1-2 characters), but with that escalation I'd bet Insane is even more unforgiving. So Jax goes out of the picture.
Why mention Jax? Because an optimal team, I mean optimal in capability of decimation, would be made of 4 snipers (energy weapons when it comes to that, all laser rifles primaly) and 2 big gunners. 2 BG won't kill each other by friendly fire, but can compensate if one misses a shot. The two can also destroy a Behemoth even in record time.
Unfortunately Supermutant recruits come way too late. Their 2 AP bursts can't help you in Kansas City where not only firepower is needed, but CONSTANT firepower. That's what 2 AP bursts give you: an entire army of enemy annihilated by one character. It's not more damage, but damage to more enemy.
So you want recruits and want them NOW, to train them properly until Kansas City at the very least. And who you have access too? Not many.
You have of course:
- Farsight: She's a sniper type. Her 4 LK on Insane shows though: she constantly will be hit from friend and foe, so she seriously shall be trained to stay far from the front line with a sniper rifle.
By the way: you had enough of Too Many Random Encounters? Keep around Farsight, rise HER outdoorsman skill, and voila, almost no random encounters! Talk about Weird Coding...
- Stitch: the guy is blind, on Insane you want to get rid of him probably.
Don't forget:
- PipBoy: he comes early, he's a sure catch, has good skill level, good stats to be a big gunner (6 PE is not sniper quality), is a small target, has a powerful weapon etc.
And the BoS offer:
- Brian: 5 PE is not ideal even for a Big Gunner. And drugging up your team takes time. Maybe try Team Combat Mode for that in Kansas City? Hit enter, drug up, release turn based mode?
- Jo: she sux. Low PE, low AG, bad skills. She was a whole other person before the patch.
- Jax: he's actually attractive, the problem is, he'll be dead weight for atl least 1 mision (30% small guns at the start). And with his 5 IN has to evolve 2 combat stat ASAP (SmallGuns, then BigGuns), so he won't be able to help your team on other fields.
- Robin: look, I'm not sure what's your style, but I don't like to send melee against a group of AK 47. Because you will if you have melee-only team. Tag! only comes at lvl 12, so he's stuck with that until then.
Well, it is certainly possible at a merrit as you can see it at jdmazz (not in Kansas though), but I'm way too not into that situation.
He also only have 5 ST predestining him more to sniper role, and has the problematic NightPerson trait too.
- Torn: another melee character. She has ok stats, but her 4 IN seriously gives a limitation. Also has 4 LK like Farsight, but doesn't have the precoded super-sight.
- Trevor: with his 4 IN and 6 PE he'd have to handle 3 combat skills (throwing, small guns, big guns after tagging), and that's... Inconvenient for me.
These come after Rock Falls with 1-2 CH (maybe 3 too), after Freeport if you have CH 4-5 (Ice only if you have 5 CH), or right after Brahmin Wood too if 6+ CH:
- Kevin: only 5 PE, his starting SG is semi-low (only 65%, while you'd need 90%+ right there). Not entirely useless though, but for Insane I want to be strong, and I want it now.
- Mandy: Sniper type. Could hold a Big Gun, but why waste her talent. Has very high skill rate, so she'll be able to afford any skill you want to give her, starting with Doctor if you did not tag it to yourself (or you just tagged it for the extra doctor's bag). Sure, if you get rid of Stitch for her you'll likely not have anyone with doctor's skill for 1 mission, but that's probably sustainable.
- Rage: has good stats, likely a sniper, especially with his 5 ST only, unless you Mutate him to Gifted or give Gain Strength. Both viable options though. He also has steal tagged, and with 60% steal (sneaking, from behind) you can get 3 Pancor Jackhammer from the Merchant encounter. Good against Quincy's deathclaws.
- Rebecca: with the 2 lockpick trick she isn't that dandy. 5 ST, 4 EN -> sniper type.
- Ice: she can do her stuff I give you that. But her 7 PE, the lack of support skill aside outdoorsman which is redundant if you have Farsight (and you probably won't have a better sniper for a long time, so you likely will hold onto her. Or not) don't make her much attractive to me, although I confess I got used to a certain asset and I'm not that good with major changes, so considering the roles + support skills teamup can prove me otherwise here.
Worth to mention with 6 CHA you'll get access after Rock Falls 3 more recruit instead of after Macomb + Preoria:
- Keith
- Stoma
- Stumpy
But I don't think neither is the highlight of life.
If you plan using anyone after this point, you get the same pool until it counts. After Mardin you'll have acces to (if sidequests are done for ghouls and deathclaws): Creeper, Dillon, Harold, Martin, Shaav,Shriek, Hurt, Krldraav, Malice, Mother, Pain, Alice, Boomer, Ed, Max. They come somewhat late, so you'll have short time trying to fix them. Likely you're better off with the characters from before. They all have serious trouble, like extremly low LK or IN, or otherwise, like being Glowing One (and extremly low AG), or simply being slightly underlevelled, or lacking any combat skills for example (This is Ed. Ed is dead.).
So the potential Big Gunners are lacking big time. Given that you also need competent and numerous snipers, the pool is even further limited. This'll make it likely your protagonist will have to fill the role.
Also means your protagonist better have at least 4 CH. 4 CH because up 'till before Freeport you'll only find 3 dose of Mentat (2 through special encounter. No idea if any random encounter can carry doses of Mentats), and one will be used up by Farsight (the one you find in Brahmin Wood). That gives 6 CH, and all the good people right away. If you can.
Yes, unlike for choosing perks you don't need hard points to get rank. I mean recruit pool. Well, it1s a complicated issue. Accept it that this works while probably shouldn't.
This all means you should figure out a viable human character? Not entirely.
While it'll lack the Perfect Team, definetly would have power of survival if you start with a robot. Robots are not species in the reguilar terml, so I did not lie when telling that about deathclaws' damage, technically (rolls speech check).
If you take the robotic approach try to get the brahmin armor. And given how problematic it can turn to be don't go kamikaze. Also advicing against One Hander because you can't mutate it away. But its native traits are very attractive, and their downside usually worth it.
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Finaly the human character. As you're "supposed to", because the studio had no sanity to give the option to the player to choose race for the campaign mode. Ye, it makes SOMe sense story-wise, but c'mon!
I did not do it, this is purely theory, but you'd look atleast somewhat like this:
skills: unarmed, small guns, +1: sneak is not absolutly needed. Will need Big Guns, but I'm not sure if that's sufficient starting skill or should later be tagged instead.
traits: gifted, onehander which gets later mutated away to fast shot
SPECIAL: ST: 6-7-9, PE: 7?, EN: 7+, CH: 4, IN: 6+, AG: 8-9 (depends if you'll have a Leader in the team), LK: 5-6
With 6, 7, 7, 4, 6, 8, 6 you spend 44 points, leaving 3 more. Considering the problems with the first mission I'd spend those points either into ST (more unarmed damage, no need of perk to handle Browning / Bracing instead of Weapon Handling to use Browning) or into EN (can suffer a bigger hit preventing dying - good to know tagging Unarmed givesa Buffout, which you should swallow right away).
Here's also my ghoul who passed (I'm sexy! - Okj, face it, ghouls suck. Their only good stat is PE, but making that work is not easy, ghoul perks suck, ghoul traits suck, and they can't wear basic armor, so humans are 99% better/more simple like in this case too):
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How to solve Mission #1 (Brahmin Wood):
Make a character with at least 7 EN (which also makes Preoria that much easier 'cause add a Buffout and an environmental armor and you'r immun to poison. Ghouls require 9 EN for Brahmin Wood, and with that will haveno issue with poison/radioactivity) , Unarmed tagged, possibly onehanded. It does not/under the patch no longer effects onehanded and twohanded weapons, instead gives 10% to small guns and unarmed (also throwing). Yes, it cripples big guns. That can be fixed later.
Also pick Gifted, and tag Small Guns (unless you plan something funny). The 3rd tag is optional. I suggest Repair, if you're against it then Doctory, maybe Big Guns (or Energy Weapons).
6-9 ST to have melee damage and selection of weaponry. Have 7+ PE for ranged weapons later. EN 7+ for survival (it really makes you avoid 1HKO. Experiment for your own risk trying to lower this number, I suspect a Weird Coding related to this. 100% fact anything less than 5 will make you killed). CH 4 for team (if you don't care, get a robot instead). IN 6+ because of skillpoints and BRoF. AG 8 if I may (9 would be even better if you'll have a Leader, but probably that point is better spent elsewhere). LK 5-6 to not get negatives, possibly for Bonus Ranged Damage.
My character has 9/7/7/4/6/8/6. Yes, I did it.
As soon as the mission starts eat the Buffout you got for tagging Unarmed. Keep your character unarmed unless I say so. Actually, give that Buffout to Farsight instead.
Encounter #1 (the boy and his dog): the dog is no threat, if notices you will charge your team. Make Stitch with shotgun crouch behind the wall, and it'll die by one shot. To ensure this you might stand there with the rest (MP5 on you and Beretta on tripple shot on Farsight - or simply MP5 on Farsight).
The human patrol when noticing you will come and stand close to the wall, possibly charging your team. Wait until this is revealed. If he comes - kill him. If stops charge where he is (he always stands the same spot) point blank range. Let's hope you don'tkill yourself with the shotgun.
Encounter #2 (associates): the nearer standby should be finished off ASAP else the other comes and shoots with deadly precision and it is just annoying, and the situation is a waste of currently rare ammo. So instead charge Raider#2 with Stitch and you as soon as he lays down when Farsight shoots a bullet on hiim/her. Actually just make 1 shot by Farsight, make her run behind the fence to the tohers, switch her to MP5, and run in point blank with everyone.
After finished move Farsight along the chasm to see where Raider#3 patrols. When he's between the sandbags uncovered lay down. That should provide enough % to autoattack and he can' disappear behind the sandbags, which fastens the process (this mission will take a looong time on Insane). If he shoots back crawl back a little. That's your ammo he's wastin'.
Encounter #4 (the coward): this one is alone, but likes to hide in its room. Put you two best with shotgun + MP5 (or unarmed) next to the entrance, and make your 3rd member get noticed. The guy will come near the entrance. Move your 3rd to the rest. When the raider gets bored charge in and hope again you don't kill yourself with the shotgun.
Encounter #5 (cockroaches): the shotgunner outside the fence makes your life hardest.
But give Farsight the MP%, and send her laying at the left side of the pots, so she just sees the guy insde and starts bursting. He'll run out of the gate - maybe releasing some shots just the first time - and keep running in and outmaking himself killed. The only danger is if the dog runs in during his first leave, sobe prepared to send in the rest of the party (magnum on Stitch).
When going out of this building there'll be a dog patrol. Wait it to appear, it'll notice you and charge you. Make a falanx from your troop and it'll die before first bite.
Move Stitch and you back to the building, to the fence near the door you came in - the shotgunner will probably charge to this place giving you free shots. Make Farsight crawl around nearer to the little shed outside and shoot from there with the 23% she gets layed down. That's the best you can have. For a ton of ammo shotgunner will either die not doing a thing (this never happens, we only hope) or run to its death. At the point he really turns coward and starts running he's a spinning duck and means no harm (99%). He'll actually run into the small room of #4, so just plant there Stitch (with MP5) and yourself.
Inside the shed is a dose of Voodoo, store it (unless you're sure of yourself).
Encounter #6 (kennel): give Farsight the freshly looted Silverhawk with double barrel. Stealth your whole party, agressivity to defensive. Position her and you next to the sleeping human make Stitch stand between the dogs and the human (have him either shotgun or MP5). Hit agressive (asap if the human awakens).
Encounter #7 (hostage situation): crouch Stitch and yourself (this time with some Small Guns. Maybe standing would be better as when he gets point blank HtH is better approach) in front of the tent (you can't sneak because of the brahmins). Run in with Farsight, she has a chance to shoot once. Or position her until she sees from outside one of them and can hit him with hunting rifle. Run back to your team, ONE of the raiders will charge. Let's hope he doesn't kill anyone, but dies (I hate this part).
Next send yourself to the other entrance running to the raider who walked back to its place. Charge in the other two too. Everyone should have single shot setting, you unarmed.
When finished lay to the walls at the side which leads further. Wait until you sense the siluette of the patrol there.
Encounter #8 (seek&destroy): charge the patrol, don't let it run to any distance. Use the .45 pistol you got from Encounter #2, the MP5, yourself unarmed. Position that she'll run away from the nearby tent.
Inside the tent near the entrance is a sneaker. He'll likely hurt you, but not kill you. Run point blank its place and hope the best. You'll find a dose of Mentat on the shelves - make Farsight eat them.
Send Farsight out and outranging shoot laying the guy inside his bunker. He likes to crouch and stand behind the pole of it, so if you don't see him for a couple of seconds walk around very far with another character to check if he's just standing behind the pole.
Encounter #9 (nazi bunker): go along Farsight (who has Silverhawk, double barrel) and you or Stitch (same weapon) sneaking on the far side of the fence of the playground. Walk up to the raider and kill it switching agresisve (really need no point in sneak to make this). Before doing this give Farsight the Voodoo, keep in mind you did, and start hurry with the rest of the mission. Go back.
Make Farsight lay down along the fence outside when the patrol gets out of the cover of the wrecked car (use the car yourself as cover too) and shoot down the scropio-patrol. If the hunting rifle guy runs out of the bunker that's Game Over for me, can't help you (ca. 10% chance).
Send yourself unarmed around the little bunker. Or send Farsight and Stitch, silverhawk on Farsight, MP5 on Stitch. Get patched up, and murder the guy on the left who has a hunting rifle. Run out asap if you get hurt, patch up, rinse and repeat. The other guy has plenty of resistances/HP, so expect with that he takes forever to die (run out when you run out of AP, seriously). Pick up and equip the Punch Dagger for yourself.
Encounter #10 (rubbled site): climb the sniper nest and kill the guy there (try sneaking, but he usually allows) either by you (if you have damage resistance) or by Farsight (go point blank when up there).
From there you should be able to spot a patrol (and the local guy with the dog if he decides to not sit tight), and there's a guy hiding behind the nearby wall and might try to charge ther nest (he'll be a sitting duck that way, but still). Deal with them by Farsight sniping from up here.
There is a sneaker you-know-where (if not look up a Let's Play video) who might or might not come out of its hiding (sometimes I'm even unable to find him at all, and come back from the HQ to deal with him). Sorround his place and mob him when appears.
There's another raider (already mentioned) in the area with a dog (the dog never leaves the corner to look around).
Encounter #11 (danger zone): before leaving the rubbled place is another sneaker you-know-where so stand him around.
Just outside the wall in front of the big building is a 2-men patrol, one has a shotgun and likes to run dangerously mid-distance. If you can beat him, you're halfway there. Might want to feed Farsight the Voodoo here. Might want to throw the incindenary grenades/molotovcocktails on the shotgunner by Farsight (she has 44% throwing, you might dobetter if you tagged the skill). The other (with smething single-shot) isn't deadly, just dangerous (and likes to run around, so mostly just annoying).
Then there's still outside a guy crouching at a corner of the building with a hunting rifle. Run to him from behind (can't sneak because of cows) while Farsight shoots him from the front. Hope the best. He isn't supposed to be deadly with 6-7 EN. Anotherlegitim approachis to send Farsight and Stitch point blank with double barrel silverhawk,but smetimes the guy notice your party and can hurt frighteningly.
Encounter #12 (boss): this if nothing else is why you fed the Voodoo to Farsight, she'll do the job here with the remaining ammo of shotgun, and hunting rifle.
Step out double barrel Silverhawk, and immediatelly step back. You'll if all goes well shoot once (maybe killing the crouching guy at the entrance, maybe not), step to cover, AND the boss-speech will be done for (very annoying, 'cause moves the screen, making you hard to get into safety, possibly lethal if you accidently click inside the curtain instead of outside). Sneaking helps (Farsight has a good portion in that).
If the guy lives AND runs away get to the roof, otherwise rins&repeat and only get to the roof when he's dead. It is also likely that you'll see another raider come close. If you think close enough, duble barrel it too and hope it's not you who dies (they are many).
If you're VERY lucky you might see the sniper girl who's most dangerous of all from the roof and be able to snipe her. Or Horus the boss. If not, get down and walk along the gate-cover looking for a bug which let's you see the enemy on the other side (again likely the sniper girl, possibly other/s). Thin them out this way,and don't forget to heal, heal,heal asap if you get hit! If there's no remaining option step out cautiously, remaining as far from the enemy as possible and do your stuff. If get hurt even slightly, step behind the curtain and get healed! Seriously!
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Intermission:
- I don't like Stitch for this, so add him Here&Now, spend all points on Barter. Aside the sepcial encounters also bought 200 shotgunshells from the BoS.
- get to Brahmin Poker encounter
- get to Hermit, buy outdoorsman book, metal armor, mentat
- get to Farmer, buy outdoorsman and small guns book.
- get to Gas Station, buy Elixir of Life
- get to Trader. Buy enviromental armor and mentat
- get to Merchant. Buy pilot book, traps book, and optionally the FNFal (that's a very strong weapon at this point)
- get to PipBoy and have him (worth it even just for the FNFal)
- brahmin armor encounter: if you have/plan to have ghoul/supermutant. The thing is even better than mark II ghoul armor.
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Freeport:
Important is that the camp does NOT wake up. Sneak around with a 2-3 person strike team murdering everyone in their sleep.
Also the warning about the bridge is very serious this time. From the Informator start to clean it up slowly, otherwise you can easily be overwhelmed.
During the mission burst mode wins. AK47s for everyone.
Lastly don't forget that conflict between karma and rank got dropped, so free Ripley.
Ah, the boss also got damage. On any other diff he was a total joke.
You can drag up to 2 extra with you during this mission.
After the mission you can get (bought/stolen) a small guns mag from Shauri.
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Rock Falls:
You barely have range-advantage with hunting rifle. Use that.
The main threat is AK47 enemies. The AI is also clever, but the buggers don't shame sneaking. So meta-knowledge comes in handy.
Some enemies are better left out, like the 2 guy in the pit on the left. If youwant to kill those know that they are sneaking, and have AK47. Those things under Insane are potentially lethal. Better wear that enviromental armor with your tank.
Supllies are also thin. For a period it looks like you'll run out of 7.62 ammo tostart with. Healing supply is also thin, I'm at the very end of First Aid Kits and stimpacks every time. Seems stealing will be a must.
Enter the complex through the main gate. It opens by touching.
Leave Daisy for the last of the outer parts. There's a voodoo during the mission - consume it. Have an FNFal. Wear Enviromental Armor. Play step in-step out. Heal in between.
The final building has engine-holes - abuse that bug. The scorpio-henchmen like to cripple you with every shot, and the boss has AK47. The door at the bottom can be picked (Rebecca w/o spending any skillpoint could do it with 7 tries). Going in the normal way is VERY problematic, the AK47s up the galleyway mustbe killed to be able to kill the AK47s on the first floor's terrace, but getting up and not dying before they do is almost a miracle itself. Even with EN 7, Enviromental Armor, and a Voodoo consumed, using an FNFal.
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Macomb:
Heavy use of the vehicle is advised. Burst everyone to death.
Gate#3 is very dangerous, and inside you can't have the car for extra protection. AJackhammer if you have comes VERY handy. Also drugs if you wish. Bunker Beta immediately offers you fatchance of gambling for tons of drugs and repair kits.
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Preoria:
Poison is sick, but if your EN is high enough AND wear Environmental Armor you're safe at least form that.
Overdose the turrets as regular.
Do not let the critters melee you, they cause crippling criticals too easily.
But as youhave large space to pull back, if it is something thatdoes not shoot acid on you, you can use all kinds of otherwise unused weaponry to spare real ammo.
After this mission the doctor's assistant is no longer available for gambling, so if you want his stuff get it before doing this mission.
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Quincy:
This place is a mess
Actually far less problematic when you know whatyou're doing, justhugh, thus frustrating if &@{ hits the fan.#0 Preparation
Get to the merchant encounter and steal yourself all 4 pancor jackhammer from there. Also get ammo to them. (Travel there, steal 1-2 things, back to base, save, repeat - that's how though guys do it. 70% steal should work.)
You don't need special oneshot stuff. The only special thing that can work is a .44 magnum which eats 1 less AP per shot, with JHP buletts. Otherwise AK47s and FNFals are perfectly fine solution.
Buy a Power Fist in the BoS. 10-20 ammo shuld be enough for it, you only will use it once.
Pack 3 psycho for you assault team who'll free Eliot.
Buy form the BoS the 80 green shotgun shells they offer. It'll come in handy. At 1 occasion only they incrise your chances.
#1: Saving Hillary
To do this best if you send someone who can sneak. Sneak in through the ladder with a jackhammer. Stand before the bullhorn blocking the way (stand on the side closer to him if you're not sure, so he'll make a longer route, and that's enough). Hit agressive - done. Disable the big siren.
For completion (and to remove possible problems - in this mission enemy likes to hive in) get out, stand at the windows aiming the sleeping 2 baby. Start shooting with all 4 jackhammer, and even the 3rd will come. Get away, change to hunting rifles, get to the front going around the playground. Get just close enough (some of your troop should be able to afford 120-125% smallguns, the rest 100%), lay down, kill the beastmen outside and inside.
This is a 100% solution.
#2: Powerplant
You'll need 2 person, one in environmental armor, the other metal armor. Both aquired from special encounters a long time ago. Both should eata psycho. Actually make a 3rd member eat one too in case you get knocked out. All have pancors.
When you see the patrol arriving send environmental to her, the other to the bottom sandbags. Do not afraid if you see things blowing up, that doesn't matter. I'm not even sure where the smoke comes from. Move the personal as needed. Hotkeys rule this subqest.
Don't forget to disarm the remote traps for 200 more subquest exp.
This is actually a 99% solution.
#3 Ghoul Town
I prefer this, because things can get haywire here easily. First switch to hunting rifle, and when you see one or both the patrol close enough run to shooting range and finish them off. Things should settle now.
Make a wall of iron now: all your team except 1 crouching in one line, facing the deathclaw standing not too far. Switch to the strongest bursting weapon you have. Send in your standing person (not one with jackhammer, and make it be a good sniper). Send the soldier close enough to release a bulett, then ASAP GET BACK. Best is if you start running back from the side of the road nerer to the houses (the side of the deathclaw), and come back nearer to the fence. This way you avoid being bursted to death by pancor jackhammer, and lead the deathclaw to the most lethal place: in the middle of the road.
Now keep your line but stand up. The three psychoed pancor person should have single shot stuff on them (FNFal, .44 magnum, AK47 etc.). Also shall ALL pancor be filled with green ammo for this. The ones not with autoshotgun shall have hunting rifles. Activate "formation" on in the options menu. Run to the road betwwen the Ghoul Town and the beastmen farm. When most stuff are dead (especially the grown deathclaw) switch weapon on your 3 psycho assault team, and send them to the barn ASAP. They must rescue Eliot from getting shot in the head. If everything goes as intended you won't burst yourself to death, neither will you have any problem with the deathclaws as the AI is not clever enough to get around the fence.
This is the best chance as far as I know, I give it 70-80% success rate.
#4 Major's Daughter
Once I got a "you lost, nyeh nyeh nyeh" message even though I wasn't even near the place, so that can happen.
If that doesn't ruin your career switch to hunting rifles and start killing things on the side of the powerplant. Then clear the roof. Then go downand kill the guard in the front, then the dogs and their master (the dogs have surprising amount of HP, use burst mode AK47/FNFal with your party).
Next make a line and send in a sniper like with the firstdeathclaw. Run out, and the patrol inside dies.
Get in the lobby, make a line with jackhammers. There's no place for a 5th member, so stand 2 person behind them with hunting rifles. Hit agressive. When the deathclaw is dead switch weapons on the shotgunners to kill the beastman faster.
Have 2 jackhammer sneak in to the sleepers and fnish them off.
Success rate: if that unknown factor does not appear, 100%.
#5 Prison
Get through the tunnel. I used mr. Environmental to finish the two in the tunnel - they don't seem to be anything special. Send 1 jackhammer sneaking on the ladder in defensive. Wait until the beastman inside goes away. Break the bullhorn, switch to agressive. When the patrol is dead switch defensive, keep sneaking, send up the party. The party should already have single shot stuff set on them. The jackhammer who just now killed the patrol should keep his weapon. If you have a character capable of unarmed (this is insane mode, your protagonist should be) apply the power fist you brought. Send everyone up the stairs. Send everyone to the corner of the sandbags. Send jackhammer to the right side to the two beastman behind the sandbag. Send your power fist right to the boss. Watch everyone's HP to pull anyone who gets hurt to cover.
This is the best you can do. Factoring all the risks expect ca. 70% success rate.
This is the final official mission, there are 3 more with minor or no consequence.
#6 Brothel of Physical Lust
The idea is to run (or if every member is capable sneak) to the side at the edge of the building. The AI doesn't seem to be overly agressive until you enter.
Have everyone single shot stuff.
Send the majority just in the room, around the crouching guy at the door. Send 1 person to the windows where is a prostitute. Who'll likely die anyway to be honest.
If you manage to have at worst 2 loss of hostages you get top exp (400 exp). The girls only need to live until the beastmen INSIDE die.
If you can't do the quota, youstill get quest exp (200 exp).
If you hit any of the girls, you get no exp for your troubles.
This is highly dependent from random, perfect score maybe possible 30-40% of times. But hitting a girl maybe happens only 10%, so it has a good chance you get recognised anyway.
#7 Even atheists go to church sometimes - although not for praying
Ye, circle all the way back around the prison, and go for the church. It has 2 deathclaws in it. Be fast, and they wil try tpo pass through the wall instead of going through the door. Finish them off with jackhammers (enemy with low HP tends to flee, and that doesn't sound good).
NOTE: if youdon't want to mess with the claws but need the armor inside, leave the mission, then come back. The enemy will be gone.
#8 Two hiding deathclaw and a beastman
I'd never sacrifice a perfect mission for only a handful of exp. If I'd need exp, huntin in random encounters sound 10000% safer. So I always pass this one.
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Mardin:
With every playthrough I hate Mardin more. The wasps are bloody tiny, even on Hard everything starts to cripple you with every hit, poison appears again, but on Insane this mission - at least the surface - becomes bloody ridiculous! The lack of doctor's bag not helps the situation either (the developers seem to be shamed by this, provided a new doctor - which means refill of medic stuff - back in the base. Hope you got everything from the original doctor).
One of the reason why this is so hard, because everyone from all around will charge towards you as soon as you attack someone. And some enemy are just bloody cheaters. For f* sake, one beastman had better vision than bloody Billy Bob!
Btw, why bud Billy does not gain a perk at lvl 9? Darn it! And darn Farsight for she so easily becomes irradiated! And darn the developers making every darn ghoul darn glowing from radiation, and darnn not providing radX and rad away, and darn environmental armor! (Should I check the shop more?)
And darn them that I practically had to solo the whole underground part with a combat shotgun!
Good news are scarce, but exist: wasps are NOT by techncalflying, thus theycan"step" on mines. They're also unable to pass the graveyard fence - that's rly helpful.
And the deathclaws are a help. Btw, to finish of Darn, best use Power Fist.
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Springfield
Since once the boss ran in and murderd the mayor no matterthe difficulty I jump in environmental armor, grab a Pancor and an FNFal, tons of ammo, get high on a psycho and a voodoo, and play terminator.
For the final 2 buildings get hold to some shotgun slugs because they can deal armornegating criticals so killing them fast is a must.
And for the tall building switch defensive, crawl to see the gas and blow those up first.
NOTE: do NOT go in and talk with the major until you looted the bodies!
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St. Louise:
On Insane the missionbriefing makes absolute sense. Doing anything not sticking to the shortest route will probably kill you. At least it like to the vehicle. Even some saw-muties can shred it, and then it's game over.
I found the route on the picture the least risky. You need a sniper. Use the fact the AI is dumb and caneasily blow itself up on the minefield.Use range to your advantage. Use chasms and the passfinding routine's simplicity to your advantage. Fear the rocketeers. Remember the browning. Riding in to the first sandbag is unavoidable (but it is highly unlikely they'd shred the APC).
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Jefferson
Thisplace is a nightmare on Insane. The skin of the muties is darn thick,and the distance betwee you dead and not is the drugs you took, and the critical they just might get which'd ignore your armor!
So, Insane has this problem that it's no longer about Damage Per Second, but Damage Per Shot. I made a second group which knows this and I think I'll forever abandone my human-lead group for the sake of the ghoul-one.
Ghouls have advantage of incrised racial maximum luck, which can help to cause massive amounts of criticals, especially with the More Criticals perk. Take 2, and Weapon Handling, not 3 like stupid forgetful me. At least this gave me enough damage to pass Jefferson, and while not ideal, will probably be managable. I do have an archive save after St Louise before I picked perks, but why bother. Ye, would be comfortable to wield me too a Browning, but I think I can manage.
Especially that seems Fear the Reaper is bugged. If the Scythe is now swinged, it's no problem. If the Scythe is swinged and hits, it's no problem. The problem seems to occur because the damage the character receives counts as an attack, so armor (AC) can prevent it. It seems to be the mechanic which causes crash, because avoidning that damage results in Unexpected Error.
Well, everything will depend on defending Kansas City.
Jax of course will get drugs (Mutie, 2*Psycho), and my Lola will use rocket launcher (hardly any ammo, but fortunately no browning on that map) and SAW. I plan on making a falanx of pancor jackhammers, but we'll see.
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